How Did We Ever Get Trapped In Bosnia?

WORLD OBSERVER Roberto Fabricio, Foreign Editor

May 28, 1995|Roberto Fabricio

Once again, the magical early-morning stillness at the piedmont of the Italian Alps is being shattered by the roaring afterburners of NATO bombers.

The delicate fragance of the morning dew and wildflowers is blending with jet fuel that reeks its offensive aftertaste over the valley in Aviano, Italy, home of the U.S.-Italian airbase where the attacks are launched.

In the hills on the periphery of Sarajevo, Tuzla and other cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina under siege by Serbian forces, the allied laser-guided bombs are zeroing in on bunkers and trenches with deadly accuracy.

Once again, the talk in Washington and Naples focuses on the logistics of landing tens of thousands of allied soldiers in the Balkans to protect the backs of U.N. peacekeepers as they retreat from the nightmare that is Bosnia.

And you know that when the United Nations pulls out of a raging conflict, hell is a mild word to describe what will follow.

If the pullout occurs, it could involve as many as 25,000 U.S. troops, about half of those needed to pull back the blue helmets.

The worst battle, generals will tell you, is a defensive battle fought on retreat. The Pentagon has long dreaded such a scenario, and with good reason.

This is a good time to revisit the Balkan terror and remind ourselves just how we got here and what the stakes are for Europe and the United States.

Germany's fateful decision

We need only to go back to the summer of 1991, when a reunited Germany was teetering with instability and a heavy resurgence of right-wing nationalism.

In a decision that rated relatively little mention around the world, Bonn announced it had agreed to recognize the new, rebel government of Croatia, until then part of Yugoslavia.

That fateful decision by Chancellor Helmut Kohl was a concession to a powerful political constituency - about a million Germans with roots in Croatia, where there is a heavy ethnic German population.

Not only did Germany make that move, which effectively killed the former Yugoslavia, but it began to lobby its allies in Europe and around the world, including the United States, to do likewise.

What had been a civil war among various components of Yugoslavia became prime-time news and the first order of business in world capitals. Serbia, the largest section of Yugoslavia, fought to preserve the union pulled together by Marshal Joseph Tito during World War II. Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia fought to secede. Macedonia talked, but stayed out of it.

Before long, the European Union, NATO and the United States were knee-deep in the Balkan swamp, with the former Yugoslav republics now full-fledged U.N. members.

Interestingly, no German soldier has stepped into the war to keep the peace. The main components of the U.N. peacekeeping forces have been French, Spanish, British and Bangladeshi soldiers on the ground; U.S. and Italian crews on the airlift; NATO air forces (with the United States as the largest partner); and U.S., French and British navies in the Adriatic. About 500 U.S. troops also are stationed in Macedonia as a human buffer to prevent Serbian assault.

We should have just said no

During reporting trips to Sarajevo and Zagreb - where I flew in on a U.N. military transport tracked by enemy radar - and later to the U.S. Air Force bases in Aviano and Padua, I got a firsthand look at the horror of this war. Later, I followed U.S. Army Rangers on a mock assault on the Balkans carried out in southern Italy. The soldiers had a profound understanding of the dangers involved in a rescue mission to the Balkans.

It would be a tragedy if the shifting and hesitant policies of two U.S. presidents, George Bush and Bill Clinton, eventually drag U.S. forces into a regional war that is the result of Europe's crassest political emotions.

All that was needed was a strong voice in the White House and the State Department that would have said: "No, Chancellor Kohl, you can't unleash this kind of mayhem on Europe or on us. We won't put up with it."But neither Bush nor Clinton was up to the match.

Having said that, the United States may have no recourse but again to take the lead in rescuing Europeans from their own mess.

It would be nice if, this time, the Europeans paid the bill and acquired some humility to own up to their foibles and ancient hatreds.